Alcator C-Mod Run 930917 Information

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Miniproposals
Miniproposal:
Date Filed:
Title:
First Author:
Session Leader:Yuichi Takase (shots 1-32)

Operators
Session leader(s):Yuichi Takase
Physics operator(s):Steve Golovato
Engineering operator(s):Vinny Bertolino

Engineering Operator Run Comment
RF Coupling

Session Leader Plans

Physics Operators Plans

Session Leader Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 03:49:08:773PM
Author: To Be Determined
Run Summary for 930917

ICRF coupling studies in D(H) plasma.

Session Leader: Takase
Physics Operator: Golovato
Engineering Operator: Bertolino

Objective of today's run was to obtain loading data as functions of
1) Plasma density
2) Plasma-antenna distance

Deuterium ECDC was done overnight.
We loaded 930916010 with gas puff programming from a previous deuterium run
930819. This was the first rf run after the break with almost no previous
tuning or conditioning, and also only the second deuterium run on C-Mod.
The limiter was at R=0.92m and the antenna at $=0.94m for most of the run.
It took a while to obtain stable plasmas (there is a very narrow window
between fizzles and runaway shots) and good rf tuning. Good tuning was
obtained on shot 021. Thereafter, attempts were made to obtain a density
ramp-up (Objective #1), but a controlled density rise was not obtained.
Objective #2 was accomplished by shifting the plasma outward on shots
031 and 032, which resulted in increased loading. On shot 032 the limiter
was moved back to R=0.93m. A scan of antenna position was not carried out
because moving the antenna requires retuning, which will require several
shots at present (in the future, we will keep a record of tuner positions
for each antenna position so retuning can be accomplished in one shot).
Disruptive activity was observed today when the rf power was stepped up
to over 100 kW. Such reaction was not observed on 930819 up to a power
level of 250 kW, and we believe this is caused by "de-conditioning" of
the antenna which occurred during the shut down. We will need both vacuum
and plasma conditioning to obtain higher powers needed for heating studies.

Physics Operator Summaries
Entered: Jul 7 2004 04:36:50:350PM
Author: To Be Determined
Physics Operator Summary - Run 930917 - Golovato
------------------------------------------------

Pre-run comments:

Magnet cb and timing same as for shot 0916010.
Gas fill from a-side pure D2.
Puffing to start from a-side (pulse_gas_3).
b-side-upper has 80/20 D2/H2 mixture (pulse_gas_2).
ECDC all night in D2.
5 engr test shots preceeded plasma shots to look for problem in oh1.
Problem did not appear, has been intermittant in past.

Note: changes noted are for NEXT shot.

shot # comment
-------- ---------

6 shot 930916010 with gas programming from 930819026
(good D2 shot) fill 1.5e-5 dud


7 loaded shot 930916026 which had better breakdown setup
moved pulsed gas to 15 ms later (-67ms to -52ms). gas
arrived too soon last shot. null looked good on last shot.
fizzled. fill too high, need 25% less for D2.

8 fill to 1.e-5. moved puff 15 ms later, gas still early.
fizzled, got burst of hards. dropped oh2 v to -20 from 0
at ~5ms to help vertical stab during current ramp. moved
efc turnon later (+10ms from -20ms).

9 serious runaway shot. moved puff 5ms earlier.
raise fill to 1.1e-5. efc notched off (pid gains to 0)
at 500ms, lets plasma go vertically unstable. this is
now removed.

10 got a plasma. lowered initial puff level from 50 to 37. also lowered later puff a little. density ramping too
also too much gas later in time.

11 only slightly more than a fizzle. lowered first puff more,
also delayed second puff by about 5ms.
current ramp faster than yesterday, raised oh1 early
negative peak from -190 to -100 to increase bz ramp rate.
limiter to 92 cm, antenna to 94.

12 good plasma. leave gas alone. work on removing late vertical
disruption. reduced ef1u current to raise x-point later
in shot. also raised oh2's sooner and more starting at
600 ms instead of 700ms to lower elongation later.
finally changed z position from -3 to -2 cm.

13 OH2's moved in wrong direction. should disrupt earlier.
disrupted before programming changes. lowered early
gas and later gas puffs more. corrected oh2 programming.

14 runaway shot. very rapid current ramp.
added back early gas puff, took away some of later puff.

15 another runaway shot. no late disruption, shot went to
1.2 sec, ended calmly. current ramp still too fast.
moved gas programming earlier by ~4ms. also took out
notch between puffs. have one long puff.

16 runaways again. moved gas 5 ms earlier, raised early puff
and raised fill to 1.3e-5 from 1.1e-5.

17 fizzled, no runaways. notching efc for 10ms at 700ms.
increasing gain on ip feedback from 2 to 4. moved gas
timing later by 5 ms,but kept the levels the same.
breakdown was late this shot.

18 fizzled. left gas timing the same, reduced length of
initial puff.

19 good shot. no disruption, ended past 1 sec.
some hards, add a puff between -10 and 0 to kill them off.

20 good again. added 500a to ef1l to divert plasma, reduce
width of plasma, pull it off inner wall some.
increased later gas to increase density.

21 ran into oh1 limit, didn't double swing. plasma elongated
horizontally, r_centroid oscillated, then disrupted.
rf now tuned pretty well.
do density ramp, then move plasma radially to study
loading. added some more late gas to ramp density.

22 good plasma. disrupted at 625ms where nl_04 goes above
6e19. maybe a density limti disruption. we'll lower
the late gas a little to try to avoid it. later we can
try to raise the current to increase the limit.

23 good, short, a some x-rays. tf crowbarred. disrupted
again at same time. no efc this shot, probably tripped
last shot. adjusted bz (oh1) during breakdown to keep plasma
off inner wall. lowered late gas, added a gas blip at
560ms.

24 oh1 problem at zero crossing, long dead time around 360ms.
plasma lost again when nl hits 6e19, at 530ms. moved
gas blip to 400ms, lowered late gas.

25 some x-rays. no disruptions, clean end at 1+sec.
trying something to fix oh1 problem but worked this shot.
bz evolution diverging from trends of recent good shots.
plasma scraping inner wall during startup because of high bz.
may be cause of high zeff. adjusting oh1 to adjust bz again
lowering current. nl flat at 4-4.5e19, blip not visible.
increased blip to 40v for 20ms.

26 good shot. raised early gas to avoid runaways, raised
blip to 60v for 5ms, density ramp barely visible.

27 x-rays, shorter plasma. killed by 400ms puff. reduced
400ms puff to 50v,3ms. moved early puff from -15ms to -20 ms.

28 fizzled. tf crowbar. lower puff at -20ms, lengthened it
a little. balance between choking off breakdown and
getting runaways.

29 fizzled. tf crowbar. loaded shot 26 to get early gas
programming. added lower puff at 400ms. raised fill
to 1.4e-5 from 1.3e-5.

30 fizzled. ramping r_cur from 67 to 69 and back down again
from 400 to 600 ms. played with gas, lowering early gas,
moving blip to 630ms. fill back to 1.3e-5.

31 good shot, some runaways. late puff kills plasma but
r_cur excursion worked well. got rid of late puff,
limiter moved out to 93cm, antenna only one cm behind.

32 runaways but good shot. shot ended at 615 ms.


Post-run recap: duds 1
fizzles 8
serious runaway shot 4
good w/vert disrupt 3
good w/ps failure 3
good w/dens disrupt 4
good w/no disrupt 4
Totals - 14 good plasams, 13 runaway/fizzle/dud, 5 PS tests

Post-run comments:
Running with deuterium proved tricky, at least for me.
Pre-breakdown gas programming is complicated and critical
to getting good plasma. Current ramps were fast and Bz
ramp had to be right also. See shots 14-20 where we got
three runaway shots in a row, followed by two fizzles,
then two 1+ sec plasmas. The window between fizzles and
runaways was very small and even many "good" shots had
non-negligible hards. Horne and I struggled with this
the whole run.

Ian provided the presciption to avoid the late vertical
disruption that ended good shots at around 800 ms (see
shots 12-13 with success on shot 19).

Plasmas appeared to be dirty (high Zeff). This may
have been due to hitting inner wall during startup
(Bz ramp - Ip ramp problem) or the unconditioned
antenna.

The outboard limiter was run at 92cm without problems,
even for the fairly "fat" plasmas we were running.
I suggest we not move it out unless there is a
compelling reason. We need to run it at 90.5cm for
the two-strap antennas.

The TF is now running at 4.8T. We need 5.3T for ICRF
heating, so we should work on getting the TF up.
This may affect breakdown and current ramp and may
also require some adjustments of the alternator,
so I'm told.


Session Leader Comments
Sep 17 1993 09:37:57:610AMYuichi TakaseRF coupling run in D(H).
Discharge cleaned overnight in D.
Begin with 930916010.
A-side plenum has D, B-side-upper has 20%H + 80%D mixture.
Try to produce reproducible constant shots with rising density.
Move the antenna/limiter, move the plasma, etc.

Sep 17 1993 09:35:18:590AM930917006Yuichi TakaseShot 006
Shots 1-5 were power tests.
First attempt at plasma on shot 006.
No plasma.

Sep 17 1993 09:53:54:770AM930917007Yuichi TakaseFizzle.

Sep 17 1993 10:09:45:060AM930917008Yuichi TakaseEarly disruption.

Sep 17 1993 10:54:00:470AM930917009Yuichi TakaseShot 009
Runaway shot.
Great tune!
R_lim=95, R_ant=97.
ST=360, PS=624.

Sep 17 1993 10:54:41:560AM930917010Yuichi TakaseShot 010
Disrupted @ .2sec.

Sep 17 1993 10:59:01:140AM930917011Yuichi TakaseShot 011
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Disrupted very early (40msec).

Sep 17 1993 11:27:26:980AM930917012Yuichi TakaseShot 012
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Good shot, 470 kA, .8sec.
P_rf=40kW (peak).

Sep 17 1993 11:38:49:210AM930917013Yuichi TakaseShot 013
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Disrupt at .35sec.

Sep 17 1993 11:58:00:130AM930917014Yuichi TakaseShot 014
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Not a good-looking plasma.
Bad tune.

Sep 17 1993 12:12:02:310PM930917015Yuichi TakaseShot 015
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
A long shot (over 1sec), low density, nonthermal.

Sep 17 1993 12:23:08:910PM930917016Yuichi TakaseShot 016
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
A long shot (over 1sec), low density, nonthermal.

Sep 17 1993 12:30:52:860PM930917017Yuichi TakaseShot 017
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Fizzle.

Sep 17 1993 12:51:05:270PM930917018Yuichi TakaseShot 018
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Fizzle.

Sep 17 1993 01:08:59:070PM930917019Yuichi TakaseShot 019
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Good shot, rising density.
Still working on tuning.

Sep 17 1993 01:32:44:550PM930917020Yuichi TakaseShot 020
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Good shot, steady density.
Still working on tuning.

Sep 17 1993 02:03:41:170PM930917021Yuichi TakaseShot 021
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Unstable plasma (and falling current), acceptable tuning.

Sep 17 1993 02:28:52:640PM930917022Yuichi TakaseShot 022
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Disrupted at 0.6sec, shortly after rf power step-up.

Sep 17 1993 02:29:29:910PM930917023Yuichi TakaseShot 023
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Disrupted at 0.6sec, shortly after rf power step-up.
Reduce rf power for the next shot.

Sep 17 1993 02:52:07:260PM930917024Yuichi TakaseShot 024
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Ugly disruptive shot.

Sep 17 1993 03:14:51:020PM930917025Yuichi TakaseShot 025
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Good shot, steady density @ 4e19 (nel04).
P_rf=40kW.

Sep 17 1993 03:32:58:500PM930917026Yuichi TakaseShot 026
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Good shot, slightly rising density @ 4e19 (nel04).
P_rf=60kW, good tuning.

Sep 17 1993 03:54:09:270PM930917027Yuichi TakaseShot 027
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Disruptive after 0.4sec, too much gas puff.
P_rf=80kW.

Sep 17 1993 04:18:35:150PM930917028Yuichi TakaseShot 028
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Fizzle.

Sep 17 1993 04:18:48:500PM930917029Yuichi TakaseShot 029
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Fizzle.

Sep 17 1993 04:55:00:580PM930917030Yuichi TakaseShot 030
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Fizzle.

Sep 17 1993 04:56:23:850PM930917031Yuichi TakaseShot 031
R_lim=92, R_ant=94.
Good shot, disrupt at the end after rf power step-up.
R_cur ramp worked. Edge density and loading goes up with r_out shift.

Sep 17 1993 05:37:51:760PM930917032Yuichi TakaseShot 032
R_lim=93, R_ant=94.
Good shot, disrupt at 0.6sec
R_cur ramp worked, but not as clean as 031.

Physics Operator Comments

Engineering Operator Comments
ShotTimeTypeStatusComment
108:10:16:040AMTestOkoh1 test
208:20:38:440AMTestOkoh1 test
308:29:59:030AMTestOkoh1 test pulse good
408:38:02:290AMTestOkoh1 test
508:47:15:090AMTestOkoh1 test ok
609:25:09:070AMPlasmaOkno faults
709:49:01:390AMPlasmaOkoh1 >1scr not conducting
810:01:39:330AMPlasmaOkno faults
910:14:42:060AMPlasmaBadtf auto crobar fired after flattop
1010:34:00:800AMPlasmaOkoh1 >1scr not conducting late in shot
1110:53:59:310AMPlasmaOkno faults
1211:09:31:310AMPlasmaOkno faults
1311:28:35:200AMPlasmaOkno faults
1411:43:01:700AMPlasmaOkno faults
1511:56:21:280AMPlasmaOkno faults, plasma >1sec!!!!!!!!!!!
1612:10:44:390PMPlasmaOkno faults
1712:25:34:370PMPlasmaOkno faults
1812:40:46:980PMPlasmaOkno faults
1912:58:49:190PMPlasmaOkno faults
2001:13:59:920PMPlasmaOkno faults
2101:28:39:670PMPlasmaOkoh1 did not go negative
2202:02:42:550PMPlasmaOkno faults
2302:17:53:490PMPlasmaOktf auto cbar fired late in the shot
2402:44:06:430PMPlasmaBadoh1 hesitated crossing zero
2503:03:39:220PMPlasmaOkno faults
2603:18:43:130PMPlasmaOkno faults
2703:36:17:240PMPlasmaOkno faults
2803:50:34:710PMPlasmaOktf auto cbar fired -- all breakers pulled late in the shot
2904:08:41:250PMPlasmaOktf auto cbar late in the shot
3004:24:47:640PMPlasmaOkno faults
3104:37:52:980PMPlasmaOkno faults
3204:55:41:030PMPlasmaOkno faults